


Incandescent

by Yuesya



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: AU, DW Flames still exist, Did I mention that this is AU?, Gen, I'll add more tags when I remember them, May contain graphic description of said violence, Slight OOC, T rating is subject to change, Violence, Will contain parts non-compliant to TG:RE, Yes the mafia is still a thing, gen - Freeform, ghoul!Hibari, teen!Arcobaleno
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 09:51:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4133079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuesya/pseuds/Yuesya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the mass evacuation of civilians from Tokyo begins, any sane person would turn heel and run like hell. So does Tsuna –but in the opposite direction. It's his family at stake here, after all. [AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 24.10.14 on ff.net under username 'XxZuiliu.' As of 10.06.15, there are four chapters posted total.
> 
> This story is inspired by reading Leelhiette's "Daybreak." (Check it out if you haven't already! I definitely recommend it.) Whereupon I then went and blitzed through the entire Tokyo Ghoul manga, and then this plot bunny wandered into my garden.
> 
> Voila, welcome to Incandescent.
> 
> (The idea of ghoul!Hibari here also comes from Leelhiette. Honestly, the catchphrase "I'll bite you to death" has never made so much sense before…)
> 
> This story is AU. Timeline check: set around the Aogiri Tree arc of Tokyo Ghoul. Around… 5 years after the end of the KHR manga, give or take, so Tsuna is about the same age as Kaneki. The Arcobaleno have already been un-cursed and are wandering around in their teen forms, since I have this headcanon about them aging faster than usual infants after getting rid of the curse.

_01: "The Crimson City"_

 

. . .

 

At first, no one had noticed anything… off.

And to be perfectly honest, he hadn't realized that there had been anything wrong, either. For one, it hadn't exactly been obvious –they lived in _Namimori._ Namimori, a small town located far out in the suburbs, a modest city that was the exact opposite of an active metropolitan center. It was a minuscule, often overlooked quality that happened to make all the difference in this case. If nothing else, then for the simple fact that news reports that would stir up weeks' worth of gossip in large cities easily passed through Namimori with nary a ripple.

(The evacuation of Tokyo, for example.)

That wasn't to say that Namimori was backwater enough to have never heard of the capital city's nightmare before. In fact, one would have to have lived their entire lives under a rock not to know of it, to not know of the ones hailed to prowl the streets of Tokyo whilst leaving only death and destruction in their wake–

Namely, _ghouls._

_"Creatures that take on the form of humans, born with the innate tendency to seek out and feed on the flesh of men."_ Reborn had commented idly that day, leaning against the doorframe in a faux-casual slouch as the news footage flashed across the television screen in front of them. His eyes had gleamed with a touch of something unnaturally sharp as he slanted his gaze towards him and let his lips curl into a velvet smirk. _"But you would know all about that by now, wouldn't you, Dame-Tsuna?"_

He did, to a certain extent. Tsuna freely admitted that he could be rather dense at times, but that didn't mean he was _oblivious._ And one would certainly have to be more than a little oblivious to not know of the existence of ghouls and their choice of sustenance, particularly seeing as victims of ghoul attacks were now constantly being aired on the news in the name of "raising awareness" and "contributing" to the "nationwide counter-ghoul measure."

Not to mention, the mafia had always been acutely aware of the existence of their inhuman neighbors as well.

_"Vongola Secondo had a Guardian in his inner circle who was actually a ghoul, not a human. Quite the controversy at the time, but he was very adamant about it. Those who disagreed with him on that topic received very unfortunate ends to their careers. And their lives, I suppose."_ A flick of the wrist, and Leon instantly morphed into a gun over Reborn's fingertips. There was something strangely disconcerting about watching a young teenager handle a firearm so expertly –though not as strange as it had been a few years ago, back when Reborn and the others had still been afflicted by the Arcobaleno Curse and trapped in the forms of infants. _"Congratulations. You're the second Vongola Boss to take a ghoul as their Guardian."_

Finding out that Hibari Kyouya was actually a ghoul honestly hadn't been as much of a shock as it should have been. Or rather, _could_ have been –seeing as the bloodthirsty prefect hadn't exactly bothered much with hiding his more violent tendencies around them. Or around anyone, really. And for all the initial panic of _oh-my- **god** -Hibari-san- **hadn't** -been-joking-all-those-times-with-his- **"bite-to-death"-threats** ,_ Tsuna knew that Hibari was not a mindless monster. The Cloud Guardian was not someone who existed solely to gorge himself on the dismembered corpses of innocents, nor one who would slaughter without reason. In fact, ever since Hibari had taken it upon himself to "keep the discipline" in Namimori upon his arrival, crime rates had dropped to an all-time low.

And if Tsuna was ever disturbed by the mental image of Hibari feasting on human flesh, predatory eyes dilating as the sclera morphed black and iris bloomed into a brilliant vermillion–

Well.

Man-eating ghoul or not, Hibari was also _family._ And in his mind, family would always outweigh anything else.

(At least Tsuna had finally learned the reason why Hibari hated other people crowding around him. There was no doubt that Hibari held impressive control over his more primal instincts, seeing as Namimori was still well-populated, but only a fool would try testing the limits of a ghoul's self-restraint.

… No wonder he called them all "herbivores.")

Truth be told, Hibari was a bit of an anomaly amongst ghoul-kind. After all, most ghouls were all contained within the 24 wards of Tokyo by the Commission of Counter Ghoul. To this day, he _still_ didn't know how it was that Hibari had gotten out of the CCG security net stretching over Tokyo –but then again, "impossible" and "Hibari" pretty much went hand in hand with each other. Add in "Mukuro," and it would spell "disaster."

(… That, and "extensive repair bills." Oh, the paperwork.)

Regardless, Tsuna _trusted_ Hibari, which was a lot more than what he could say for other ghouls, especially after seeing news reports on those like the Binge Eater a while back. Ghouls were natural predators of humans, but there was a difference between hunting for food and massacring indiscriminately simply because one liked the color of blood, or the thrill of slaughter.

Although the high concentrations of ghouls living in Tokyo meant that other areas in Japan remained relatively safe, it also meant that Tokyo was dangerous. Arguably more so than any other city in Japan. So when Ryohei had mentioned that his family would be leaving for Tokyo to stay with their relatives for the summer, Tsuna had been concerned. Understandably so, in his humble opinion, though the white-haired boxer hadn't seemed to share the same mind.

"You worry too much, Tsuna!"

_Only because you don't worry enough,_ he had wanted to wail, but the words had somehow gotten stuck in his throat and he ended up choking instead. It probably had something to do with the hearty slap that Ryohei had delivered to his back, one that held all the force of being trampled by a herd of elephants.

Kyoko hadn't been much better, even if she happened to be more reasonable about it.

"We're going to be staying in the 20th ward with our uncle. It's the safest place in Tokyo, so everything will be alright." The cheerful girl had delivered a sweet smile and clasped her hands behind her back endearingly. "We'll be back before you know it, Tsuna!"

…

(As it turned out, that hadn't been the case. Far from it, really.)

At first, everything had seemed to be fine. The Sasagawa siblings left Namimori with their parents via train, but still kept in contact with the rest of them on a daily basis. When the messages began dwindling in number –that was understandable, they had mentioned that they were lending a hand to their uncle at work– Tsuna would admit to the first stirrings of unease in his chest. But still, perhaps he was simply overreacting. A symptom of Reborn-instilled paranoia, probably; Dino could certainly attest to that.

Surely, surely if they had ran into any trouble… they would let him know at first opportunity, right?

(And eventually, the messages had trickled to a stop. When he then tried calling them, what he had received was the standard "the number you have dialed is not in service" response. This left him with mixed feelings; on one hand, maybe the phone had only gotten destroyed. Again. The alternative, however…)

To his credit, Tsuna hadn't truly started panicking until Shouichi had burst into his house one day to deliver him the news, neatly tripping over Gokudera in the process as he stumbled across the living room. According to his intel, Tokyo was going under lockdown for a widescale CCG operation. Civilians were now in the midst of rapidly being evacuated from the city, and _he had checked more than a dozen times and there was no family with the surname of Sasagawa recorded on the list of evacuees._

Tsuna still vividly recalled that particular conversation.

_"I-I hacked the CCG database, since we've been keeping a closer eye on Tokyo lately. Y'know, since Ryohei was going to be staying there and all."_ Shouichi had admitted, fingers twisting together apprehensively. _"When the list came out, I made a copy of it and…"_

And he had nodded, mind dizzy and awhirl with the possible implications that this carried. That somehow Ryohei and Kyoko were _still inside Tokyo,_ a Tokyo that was on the verge of turning into a veritable war zone, by the looks of things. And Tsuna would always remember those brief, horrific glimpses of what he had witnessed in an apocalyptic future that would never come to be, of fields upon fields of blood and carnage stretching as far as the eye could see. Should the same thing happen to Tokyo, where the Sasagawas still remained…

_"… Be careful, okay? This operation they're planning in Tokyo, it –it's something big."_ The redhead had bitten his lip, a telltale sign of nervousness. _"It'll take me awhile to crack their code and get the details, but from what I've gotten so far, apparently this is a mobilized response to some organization of ghouls. I haven't found the Sasagawas tagged anywhere in CCG's databanks yet, so they should still be safe. Just… Tsuna, be careful, alright? Something big is going on in Tokyo, and I don't want you to get caught in the middle of it."_

 

.

 

Ever since a certain fedora-wearing hitman had crashed into his life in middle school, Tsuna had always felt that his life was just one gigantic roller coaster –the kind that looped upside-down on every other crazy turn with absolutely no end in sight. Always being thrown headlong into danger, always standing in the center of the chaos… selfish as it sounded, Tsuna had been _glad_ when old Nono had offered the young Decimo to-be and his Guardians a place in Italy while Japan clamored over the "ghoul operation" staged to take place in Tokyo.

(Of course, that had been before his Sun Guardian had gone AWOL on his trip to Tokyo. And Tsuna would be damned if he just left Ryohei there to fend for himself and the rest of the Sasagawa family while the rest of them escaped to Italy.)

"Looks like your Cloud Guardian is ahead of you, Dame-Tsuna."

"I guess so, Reborn."

The duo waited another heartbeat in front of the empty Hibari residence. Knowing Reborn, though, the hitman had probably known that Hibari had already left, and had just wanted to string him along this useless trip for the heck of it. The Hibari residence was located on the outskirts of Namimori, a fair distance away from the heart of the city, after all.

Tsuna tried to turn his mind away from the reality of getting tricked by Reborn again, focusing instead on the topic at hand.

"… Did Hibari-san stop by and tell you that he was going to Tokyo?"

Reborn snorted, "Hibari doesn't _tell_ anyone anything; you should know that by now. I simply checked the ticket records at the train station earlier. He and Kusakabe left for Tokyo two days ago."

Well, at least that explained why he hadn't noticed his Cloud Guardian's disappearance, if it had only been for two days. Hibari certainly seemed determined to live up to the title of the "aloof, drifting Cloud" –so much to the point that sometimes Tsuna considered sticking a GPS tracker on him just to be done with it all.

… Of course, considering Hibari's personality, he would undoubtedly be bitten to death for such a transgression.

Tsuna instinctively winced at the thought.

"Wipe that expression off your face, Dame-Tsuna. You look–"

"–Stupid, which is absolutely unacceptable for a mafia boss." Tsuna automatically finished the line, receiving a rubber bullet to the forehead for his efforts. He had long since learned his lesson in dodging rubber bullets; better to take the random abuse Reborn decided to dish out the first time instead of dodging and receiving a Leon-hammer to the back of the skull.

"Getting smart with me, eh?" Reborn clucked his tongue, though there was no real heat behind his words. "Keep that backbone for when you get to Tokyo. I hear that most ghouls there like to crunch on the bones of the mouthy ones."

_"Reborn!"_

The hitman smirked unrepentantly.

"Go home and start packing, Dame-Tsuna." Leon melted back into a lizard-like shape and shimmied up the length of Reborn's arm, leaping and curling around the brim of his fedora. "Gokudera and Yamamoto are getting ready, too. Lambo is in China with I-pin, and Mukuro took Chrome to Italy for training –it'll take them awhile to arrive, so we'll be leaving first. Did you send them the missives yet?"

Tsuna nodded as he easily fell in step next to his tutor –former tutor, officially speaking– as the hitman turned and began walking down the street, retracing the path they had taken to get here on silent footsteps.

It took him a moment to voice his next question.

"… You're not going to try and convince me not to go, Reborn?"

The response was swift and blunt.

"Would you _listen?"_

"…"

"Thought so," the hitman rolled his eyes. "I'm not like Nono. Personally, I think it's better to keep you in my sights where I can actually see what you're doing, instead of having you run off behind our backs again and wreak havoc wherever you go."

"The incident with the Hanajima-kai _wasn't_ my fault!"

"I didn't even mention it yet, Tsuna." The hitman pointed out smugly, "You're only proving my point. Or would you rather have me jog your memory about the time during Christmas a few years back when you–"

_"I thought we agreed to never mention that again!"_

"Correction: You _asked,_ but I never agreed now, did I? Therefore, your argument of us having an agreement to never speak of it again is null and void." Reborn smirked at his student's embarrassment.

(Tsuna could tell this banter for what it was, though. It was Reborn's attempt at lightening the mood, to distract his thoughts from lingering on the Sasagawas and working himself into a frenzy over his worry. He appreciated the gesture, certainly, though Reborn really could have chosen a better topic to try and distract him with.)

"… Feeling better?"

"A little," he admitted, then paused. "… I'm still rather surprised that Hibari-san actually left before us, though. He and Ryohei have never really… unless, it's related to something else? Hibari-san… Shouichi mentioned some sort of CCG operation in Tokyo, right?"

"Perhaps," Reborn allowed. "Do keep in mind; Hibari may be your Cloud Guardian, but he is also a ghoul. It is entirely possible that his goals for traveling to Tokyo differ from ours. It would be prudent to find him as soon as possible after arriving in Tokyo, though, since he would undoubtedly be privy to certain information among ghouls that would normally be impossible for us to gain access to. Also, it's highly likely that his resources would provide aid in searching for the Sasagawas if they have truly run afoul of other ghouls."

A heartbeat of silence.

"They are strong. Have some more faith, Tsuna."

The duo crossed the asphalt street together as the lights changed.

"… Kyoko said that their uncle was in the 20th ward." Tsuna spoke quietly. "It's a little strange, though. My intuition is telling me that we should be heading to the 11th instead."

"The 11th?" Reborn arched an eyebrow neutrally, voice dry. "Those two wards aren't exactly very close to each other."

"I know, that's why I said it's strange," Tsuna ran a hand through his hair, turning his gaze towards the hitman at his side. "But… I don't think I'm wrong about this, Reborn. If we go to the 11th ward, we'll find something important. I can't really explain it; I just _know_ …"

"Hyper Intuition?"

"Something like that," Tsuna tilted his head back and stared upward towards the sky, "I just hope we make it there in time."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reborn isn't really asleep here. He's just letting Tsuna take care of the situation himself. (Demon-tutor-for-life!Reborn)

_There is no light. Only darkness._

_No light ever reaches its way into these cells, where it's damp and cold and so utterly, utterly dark. There is no wind, no breeze. The air is stagnant and stale and thick with the scent of helplessness, twined with threads of fear. Somewhere in the distance there is the drip-drip-drip of water droplets splashing against the ground almost rhythmically, hypnotically, and the sound burns the sandpaper texture of their parched throats._

_The human eye will see nothing here in this absolute darkness, but they are not humans. They see the essence of the darkness itself._

_Maybe it's fitting, in a way? Fitting, that monsters should be locked away and kept in cages like beasts?_

_… If only it were the right monsters locked away in here._

_How long has it been?_

_He doesn't know._

_Days. Weeks. Months. Days blending into weeks flowing into months? Months spinning into weeks condensing into days?_

_It's hard, to mark the passage of time in these cells. Stone prisons blocked with rusted iron bars, where there is nothing but darkness. It's hard to keep track of the seconds trickling into minutes pooling into hours. It's hard, so very hard, to keep all the fear and worry and anxiety at bay._

_It's hard._

_There are no news of the world outside._

_(What happened to Kaneki-san? How is he doing? Does he know what happened to us? Will we ever escape? Is there anyone who will save us?)_

_Hope is fragile. It slips through their fingers like thin quicksand._

_Despair is strong. It chains down their hands and feet like heavy manacles._

_It's hard, trying to keep being optimistic when the future ahead of them is so very bleak, but he tries. Does his best to keep marching onward with his head held high. It's all he can do at this point._

_(It's all he has ever been able to do.)_

_"Banjou-san?"_

_He's trying, he's really trying._

_(But he can't, he's not meant for this. Banjou is not cut out to be a leader. He can't… he can't fight, not like Kaneki-san can. He can't protect anyone the way they need to be protected, and it gnaws at him, this helplessness. His helplessness.)_

_Banjou tries to smile._

_"What is it, Jiro?"_

_A small hesitation on the younger man's behalf, before the soft tenor whispered again in the darkness._

_"Kei and Kouto, are they… do you think… is there any way that…?"_

_Kei. A beautiful woman with a beautiful smile. Kouto. A young boy with a shy gaze but a warm heart. Kei, and Kouto. Two of the gentler souls of this ragtag group._

_Kei, and Kouto. Mother, and son._

_Both of whom had been dragged out of the cell by their damned jailer Yamori god-knows-how-long ago. Both of whom had never been seen again since that moment. His jaw still ached from where he'd been punched in the face when he tried grabbing onto them, desperately trying to keep them with him, because…_

_…_

_… because being taken away by the twisted, sadistic Yamori was the equivalent of a death sentence._

_(Poor, poor Kaneki-san. He didn't deserve to give up his life in vain for them. Poor Kei. Poor Kouto.)_

_"… I'm sorry for asking, Banjou-san."_

_No. No, he should be the one saying that. He should be the one apologizing._

_Sorry._

_I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry I can't do anything to save anyone. I'm sorry for being so useless. I'm sorry for being so weak._

_I deserve this._

_I deserve to be locked away and thrown into darkness, to suffer for failing all of you._

_But…_

_But none of you deserve to be here._

_I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry I can't protect you._

_…_

_(In the darkness, there is no light. There is nothing to look forward to but the insidious promise of pain and death.)_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_A little yellow bird chirps outside the dilapidated building, ruffles its feathers, and spreads its wings to fly away._

_…_

 

.

 

It started out innocently enough: a man casually striding down the aisle.

(Of _course_ it would be too much to hope that everything would go off without a hitch. But then again, if something did start off perfectly smoothly, that would only mean that there was an even greater catastrophe of epic proportions waiting up ahead. So maybe in hindsight, this was a good thing?)

The train was fairly empty. Unsurprising, considering that the final destination was Tokyo –even though the train had various stops along the way to the capital city, there weren't very many people willing to travel anywhere near Tokyo these days, not even for business ventures. Evacuation meant _evacuation;_ most were all but tripping over themselves in their haste to escape the city-impending-battleground of the CCG preparing for open confrontation against ghouls.

(It was a little strange, when you stopped and took a moment to think about it. The CCG had always fought ghouls, but direct conflict on the scale that this suggested seemed… off, considering the 'quiet' strategies that they usually employed to keep their inhuman neighbors in check.)

_"Juudaime."_

Tsuna gave an imperceptible shake of his head in response to Gokudera's near-inaudible whisper. The silver-haired young man subsided, sliding back into a boneless, lax position in his seat again as the tall man walking down the aisle passed them without any fanfare.

Yamamoto appeared wholly unconcerned on the surface as well, but to anyone who knew the swordsman, the coil of tension threading its way under his skin was obvious.

Because.

Because the man who just passed them hadn't been a simple passenger. Couldn't be. He moved like a predator and all but glided over the ground, but more importantly–

_He reeked of antiseptics._

… And why would anyone take the time to clean themselves so thoroughly like that if they didn't have something to hide?

A few moments later, Gokudera slid out of his seat, casually heading towards the bathroom where the suspicious man had emerged from earlier.

"The train seems to be running a bit slow, Tsuna," Yamamoto commented offhandedly, smile oblivious but eyes sharp. "We should've reached Yokosuka half an hour ago. At this rate, it's going to take forever and a day before we reach our final destination."

Restlessness. He could see it coiled in the other passengers scattered throughout the same train compartment as them. There were eight stops total along the route that this train was taking, and so far there had only been three. The fourth stop was Yokosuka, but the time lapse had been unusually long…

…

And the train was still showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Tsuna tapped his fingers along the edge of the armrest, mind awhirl in thought at the possible implications.

Could it be…?

"Bad news, Juudaime," A moment later, Gokudera slipped back into his seat, having returned from his brief, impromptu investigation. "It's all neat and tidy there, and the bastard even put in an air freshener. He wasn't careful enough, though. I looked in the trash bin too, and this is part of what was left behind."

Small, thin, white. Tsuna recognized it almost immediately for what it was as Gokudera presented it to him: Bone.

_Bone._

The brunet felt his blood run cold at seeing the undeniable proof of what he suspected in front of him, "… That's a finger, isn't it?"

"Used to be, at any rate." There was a dark look on his Storm Guardian's face. "Juudaime, this isn't good. If that guy is brazen enough to leave around obvious signs like this… it means that he feels comfortable and at ease here. He obviously considers it unlikely, but he's not afraid of anyone finding out what he is. There's no caution to his actions, no fear of being caught. That means that this train is his territory. Not only that, but it's likely that there are more of his kind lurking about here."

… It was a good thing that they had the foresight to choose a sparser corner on the train to sit in. Their voices were low and quiet, suppressed so that no eavesdroppers would be able to listen in on their words, but any snippet of a conversation like this one would be enough to induce panic on the train.

_The train._

The train, which… still wasn't stopping.

The train whose final destination was Tokyo.

…

… Maybe…?

Ghouls. The man was a ghoul, and it was likely that he had multiple accomplices along with him on this train. Some kind of organization, then. Maybe they belonged to the mysterious ghoul organization that had been mentioned in the news? Whatever the case, if there were _ghouls_ on a train headed to _Tokyo_ and the train wasn't stopping… it didn't bode well. There weren't very many people on the train in the first place, several passengers having already left on the earlier stops. The closer to Tokyo, the lesser the number of passengers who remained on the train.

Who would notice the disappearance of only a few people, particularly in such close proximity to ghoul-active Tokyo?

(And who would ever think of ghouls being able to hijack a train?)

Gokudera and Yamamoto had obviously arrived at similar conclusions, judging from the looks they exchanged with each other. Tsuna turned to his left where Reborn was sitting, opening his mouth to ask–

His eye twitched.

Oh, he recognized that glazed-over look, alright. Reborn was sleeping with his eyes open again, wasn't he?

Exasperation tinged with an edge of fondness, Tsuna spun around again to confer with Gokudera and Yamamoto on their next course of action. He also firmly told himself this had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Reborn had no qualms shooting anyone who dared to disturb him while he was sleeping.

(Sometimes, the hitman could be as violent as Hibari when disrupted in his slumber.)

That was when the message came.

_"Attention all passengers. Attention all– oh, screw it."_

Was it strange, that when the announcement sounded over the speakers, Tsuna's first instinct hadn't been fear for what these words foreboded –but fear of Reborn being woken up by the racket instead?

(Priorities, priorities.)

_"Listen up, if anyone else tries asking when the next stop is gonna be again, I'm just gonna get ta slaughtering y'all on the spot. Y'hear me? Fuckin' annoying meat bags. Final stop is gonna be in Ota. Yeah, ya heard me right. Ota. Now if ya wanna live longer, pipe down an' shut up, got it?"_

…

(Whew. Reborn was still sleeping. At least, it seemed like he was. One could never quite tell these things with Reborn…)

"What do you think, Juudaime?" Gokudera growled under his breath, "Want me to go and–"

Oh.

_Oh._

Tsuna blanched as his mind caught up with Gokudera's suggestion.

"No, no, _no!_ P-Please don't go around blowing everything up again! We're supposed to be _undercover!"_

The silver-haired teen looked alarmingly disappointed at Tsuna's panicked verdict, and Yamamoto just laughed.

"… If you say so, Juudaime." Gokudera crossed his arms, slumping down in his seat again. "Tch. Bastards, thinking they can use the Juudaime as a hostage–"

_I'm not the only person on this train! And I doubt they even know who I am!_

"Maa, maa. Calm down, Gokudera." Yamamoto slung an arm over the Storm Guardian's shoulders, effortlessly ignoring the dark glower that was sent his way with the ease of long practice. "It's not like this is all such a bad thing, y'know? If they're taking us directly into Ota like they said, then that saves us the trouble of having to circumvent the CCG barricade that's been set up around the city. Plus, Ota is the name of the 11th ward, isn't it? Weren't we going to swing by that ward at some point, anyways?"

Gokudera's scowl deepened.

"And the fact that we're going to be taken there by man-eating ghouls doesn't strike you as anything to be wary of?"

"Well…" Yamamoto allowed, conceding the point. "… Still, it's nothing that we can't handle, right? Ghouls burn just as easily as any other being does."

A reference to Dying Will flames.

Reborn had made sure they knew that Dying Will flames would be effective against ghouls earlier, before they had set out for Tokyo. When asked about _how_ he knew…

_"… I'm the Greatest Hitman in the World, Dame-Tsuna. I've crossed paths with ghouls before, and none of them have ever used Dying Will flames like we do. Hibari aside, of course, but he's a… unique case, all things considered. What you have to watch out for when you fight ghouls are their kagune."_

Kagune.

Just like how tigers had their fangs and claws, ghouls also had their own biological weapons used to fight and catch prey with. Tsuna had seen various footages of ghouls before, from the recordings that the CCG had seen fit to release to the public of battles between their investigators and ghouls, and he had seen those fleshy structures that sprouted from their backs. Some were feather-like and resembled wings, while others were hard as steel in a mimicry of blades.

All of them were deadly.

_"There are four different types of kagune, each with different attributes, based on where the kakuhou organ is located on a ghoul's back. The kakuhou is what we call the sac-like organ inside their body, from which the kagune –what you see manifested externally– is formed."_

The CCG made use of the kagune of ghouls they killed, removing the kakuhou from the body before fashioning it into weapons to be used against other ghouls.

Similar to how fangs were taken from the jaws of beasts and sharpened into spear-points to be used in battle.

(Ghouls were predators, and humans were their natural prey.)

_"The CCG calls these weapons that they make from ghouls 'quinques.' They're effective against fighting ghouls, yes, but so are flames." Reborn glanced down at them from where he had been polishing his gun, "Not everyone can unlock the potential to use Dying Will flames, but put a quinque into anyone's hands and they can immediately swing it around like a butcher. Honestly, the CCG doesn't have enough investigators with… finesse."_

_Here the hitman gave a rather disdainful sniff, and Tsuna shook his head silently._

_(Elitist.)_

The prospect of having to face ghouls in battle was one that Tsuna had been well-prepared for upon making the decision to go to Tokyo to search for Ryohei and Kyoko (and to find his wayward Cloud Guardian, too, while he was at it. Preferably before Mukuro was able to return to Japan from Italy. Or Lambo, for that matter. Hopefully Chrome would delay them like he'd begged her to in his letter?). However, it didn't change the fact that it wasn't exactly something that he was looking forward to.

(Ripped-open bodies and torn flesh and blood dripping everywhere–)

Tsuna was confident that they would be able to fight ghouls. He was not, however, entirely confident that they would come out of the encounter relatively unscathed and whole.

Throw a punch, and anyone's instinct would be to dodge. Throw a punch at a ghoul, and what if the ghoul's reaction was to bite of your hand? Ghouls looked human enough that it would be easy to forget what they were, kagune sprouting from their backs or not.

…

"Stop thinking so much, Tsuna." Yamamoto nudged his shoulder and grinned cheerfully. "You'll get wrinkles if you're always worrying like that. Just relax. We'll be fine."

Tsuna sighed, before giving his Rain Guardian a small smile. Yamamoto had always been uncannily perceptive.

"We'll wait for now." The train announcement earlier had finally seemed to sink into the other passengers' minds, and the train was in a bit of an uproar at the moment. Some were even desperately throwing themselves against the windows in an effort to break free –except, as it turned out, the windows hadn't just been draperies drawn closed in front of glass.

They were draperies drawn closed in front of _steel bars sliding down to lock them all inside._

Pandemonium.

Panic.

Tsuna could feel his heart thumping in his chest as well, but… his mind was still calm. Centered. Focused.

Even if Gokudera and Yamamoto were getting into another argument again (why), and Reborn was _still_ sleeping through this entire mess (how), it didn't change the fact that he had his family with him.

And for Tsuna, that was enough.

…

 

.

_A small yellow bird lands on a pale, bloodstained finger, chirping merrily._

…


	3. Chapter 3

In general, the CCG had three pieces of advice for the public to follow when the case occurred that they had the misfortune of encountering hostile ghouls, with no ghoul investigators around in their immediate vicinity:

1) Drop everything in your hands.

2) Run away as fast as you can

3) Don't look back. Ever.

… For those who took the time to hesitate and look back while in the midst of running were usually the ones who were killed first.

Ghouls were _monsters._

(Or so they said.)

However, in the current circumstances, there were more than a few problems with putting the CCG's oh-so-very-helpful advice into action, with the most glaring issue being that there was literally nowhere for them to run to. Even though the train wasn't exactly crowded, there were still a fair number of people remaining in the various compartments. Those who had realized the gravity of the situation were trembling in their seats, ashen-faced and pale, while those who still hadn't quite realized it were… still screaming, still hurling themselves against the steel-enforced windows, in a vain attempt to escape.

Their panicked voices were growing hoarse by now, and it was obvious to see that they were beginning to lose their strength.

"What's the plan, Tsuna?" Yamamoto glanced over at him, tilting his head, and Tsuna knew what his Rain Guardian was really asking him.

_Are we going to save them?_

The sensible thing to do was to simply say 'No.' After all, their goal was to quietly sneak into Tokyo and find out what happened to Ryohei and Kyoko, to get the Sasagawa family out before it was too late. Only an idiot wouldn't realize that the CCG was preparing to mount a massive military operation; whether that was an initiative that they took themselves or a preventive measure against the mysterious ghoul organization was up for debate. Tokyo was dangerous, more so now than ever before –they couldn't afford to waste time saving every civilian they came across while searching for the Sasagawas.

Tsuna… Tsuna was selfish. It was a fact that he easily admitted to himself. If it came down to saving the world or saving his family, he knew it would be his family that he chose between the two.

(Even now, he couldn't help but wonder how Yuni had been capable of making the decision to leave her famiglia at Byakuran's mercy in the disastrous future that would never come to pass… Because he knew that he couldn't –wouldn't– have made the same choice if he had been in her position.)

It didn't mean that he was cold and ruthless; god knows how many times Reborn had face-palmed and muttered something about a 'bleeding heart.'

(It was called _compassion,_ thank you very much.)

"… It shouldn't be too hard to find the CCG once we're in Tokyo, right?" Tsuna glanced at his friends.

_Yes. We're going to save them. The CCG can get them out of here afterwards._

"Gotcha," Yamamoto grinned, and Gokudera nodded in agreement.

Tsuna offered a small smile in response, before turning to Reborn. The teenage hitman was… still sleeping, miraculously.

(For a moment, Tsuna seriously considered shaking Reborn 'awake' at this point. Then the self-preservation honed through years of living under the same roof with the Spartan tutor kicked in, and Tsuna decided to leave him be.)

"We're slowing down," Gokudera murmured, slouching in his seat. "Means we're probably at Ota now. Or at least we're getting close."

True. The train was finally beginning to slow, and Tsuna surreptitiously took in a deep breath and exhaled lowly.

_Stay calm._

He saw it coming from the corner of his eye.

_His eyes look a lot like Hibari-san's,_ Tsuna realized, and quickly dodged under the man's fist. Judging from the force of the wind that whistled past from the near miss, it was very possible that the punch would've killed him instantly had it really made contact with his head. _Except Hibari-san is always in control of himself, and this man, he… isn't._

"Juudaime!"

Tsuna vaulted over a seat and ducked, hearing the warning in Gokudera's tone and reacting on instinct alone. The ghoul who had attacked him wasn't as lucky, and the man's startled shouts of pain was drowned out by the sound of explosives detonating in the air.

Three.

There were three ghouls attacking people, as far as he could see. Yamamoto had gone into a different train compartment to take care of the ghoul terrorizing people there, and Gokudera had just taken one down. The third one–

Screamed.

"Every time I turn around, you've went ahead and gotten yourself into some kind of new mess," Reborn mused, lowering the smoking gun in his hands and stretching in an uncharacteristically feline manner. Tsuna very carefully did not comment on this observation. "You should fix this habit of yours soon. It's annoying."

Tsuna twitched.

Reborn eyed the ghoul on the ground contemplatively for a moment, then raised his gun and shot him again. The second Sun-tinged bullet found its mark in the man's other kneecap in a faint yellow streak, but this time only a pained grunt escaped the ghoul's lips.

Smirking, Reborn stood up from his seat with the fluid grace of a predator and advanced on the fallen man. Tsuna couldn't quite find it in himself to feel pity for the ghoul; had Reborn not shot him when he did, he would've had to use his own flames to counter in time –and with all the civilian eyewitnesses scattered around the train and no Mist user on hand, it had the potential to make for a rather difficult situation. His method of using Sky flames was rather distinctive, after all, and not as easily passed off as a trick of the light like Reborn's would be if people became inquisitive about what they saw.

(That, and the ghoul had went ahead and _ripped a woman in two_ before turning on Tsuna. Blood was soaking into the train seats, and her internal organs were–

Tsuna forced himself to look away, feeling something coil unpleasantly in his stomach at the sight.)

"So," Reborn drawled, smiling at the ghoul in his placid I-will-put-a-bullet-in-your-skull-if-you-don't-start-talking-now sort of way. "Care to explain why you and your friends decided to attack a train of civilians?"

"Dove?" The ghoul rasped, ignoring the hitman's question entirely. Which wasn't a very wise move.

"I'm afraid not," Reborn's eyes glittered. For a moment, Tsuna scrabbled to remember what 'dove' referred to. "I am insulted that you would think I work for the CCG."

The ghoul snarled.

"Like hell you don't, you fucking piece of–"

A bullet through the hand. The ghoul was cut off mid-sentence, hissing in in pain, and Reborn clucked his tongue.

"I'm going to ask you again." The hitman's voice was dangerously soft. "Why are you here?"

_"Fuck you."_

Reborn shrugged at the vehement response and simply shot the ghoul again. This time, the man collapsed immediately, not unlike a puppet with its strings cut.

Tsuna remained silent as Reborn turned and strode towards the other ghoul, the one who was wide-eyed and sprawled on the ground at the other end of the train compartment. The one who had been caught in Gokudera's explosion earlier. Gokudera, who had slipped out after Yamamoto earlier after seeing Reborn shoot the ghoul lunging at Tsuna, trusting the hitman to keep him safe.

"Need me to repeat the question?" Reborn asked mildly.

"Nah," the ghoul quickly recovered his composure, giving a wry little smile. "Although, it's easy enough to guess, isn't it? We're here on a little supply run, before food starts running low at the base."

_Supply run. Base. Definitely part of a larger organization, then._

The ghoul stood up slowly, dusting himself off as he went, before baring his teeth at them in a vicious grin.

"This will be fun." He said lightly, "I always like it when my prey knows how to fight back. It feels less like I'm just a bully taking candy from a little kid, y'know?"

Tsuna's intuition flared.

"Reborn–"

"One step ahead of you already, Dame-Tsuna. Watch out for yourself." Two flesh-like protrusions were impaled deep into the spots where they once stood mere seconds ago, crimson tendrils that pulsated with a faint light from within. The texture of it appeared to be something almost akin to snake scales, but it was hard to tell for sure, what with all the jagged spikes lined across its surface.

… So this was a ghoul's kagune.

"Looks like this one is a rinkakku type. High regeneration and destructive power, but a brittle constitution, wasn't it?" Reborn commented, and the ghoul laughed.

"And you still say you're not a Dove?" The ghoul crouched, lowering his body, as the scarlet tendrils growing from his waist writhed around him. "You look pretty knowledgeable about ghouls to me. Is the other kid your little partner, boy?"

The ghoul didn't wait for a response, his kagune sweeping around in a wide arc towards them. Tsuna jumped, ducking and weaving around the uprooted train seats as the spikes on the snake-like limb tore them into the air. Several of the passengers who hadn't yet fled from the train compartment were either impaled or crushed under this single strike, and Tsuna clenched his fists–

"Ho? You're rather cocky, aren't you?" the ghoul commented idly as Tsuna flipped over the last spike and landed in front of him, "Not even going to bring out your quinque?"

"I don't need one," he said softly.

And it was true, not that the ghoul would know the reason why –he certainly seemed to be laboring under the impression that they were ghoul investigators. To be fair, it probably was a reasonable assumption for him to make, even though it was grossly inaccurate in this case.

Hitting a ghoul, Tsuna surmised, was much like hitting a brick wall. Ghouls were naturally more resilient than humans, and it clearly showed –whereas Tsuna had to take care to dodge each and every one of the ghoul's blows, the ghoul was able to afford to be much more careless in blocking Tsuna's strikes. There was a small frown on the ghoul's face, though, one that was slowly beginning to morph into a scowl–

Spinning on his heel, putting his entire weight behind the blow, Tsuna punched the ghoul directly in the stomach and was mildly surprised when the force was enough to send the ghoul skidding backwards.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Reborn had darted forward, capitalizing on the ghoul's momentary disorientation to force him back and–

–shove his gun to the ghoul's temple and–

_Bang._

"You forgot to watch out for his kagune," the Italian critiqued. Kicking aside the ghoul's corpse, Reborn strode through the doorway to the next train compartment. "Good to know that you can keep up with the average ghoul's physical strength for the most part, but if I hadn't been here to hold his kagune at bay–"

"Well, it's because you're here that I knew I didn't have to worry about the kagune." Tsuna shrugged before smiling guilelessly at the hitman. "I trust you to watch my back, Reborn."

"Cheeky little brat," Reborn retorted, slapping him upside the head and rolling his eyes. Contrary to his actions, there was a faint smile of his own tugging at the edge of his lips. "Let's go find your troublesome Guardians."

As it turned out, Gokudera and Yamamoto had just finished up their own battles by the time they arrived. Both of them sported various cuts and scrapes on their body, but neither had been seriously injured, much to Tsuna's relief.

"None of them are talking," Gokudera reported upon seeing them come over. "All we got out of them was 'supply run.'"

Their collective gazes landed on the two remaining ghouls bleeding out on the ground. One of them had a misshapen lump of flesh on his shoulder –as if there had been _something_ that used to grow there, before it was neatly sliced off.

(Kagune. Shigure Kintoki.)

"You won't get away with this," one of the ghouls hissed defiantly, glaring and feebly clawing at the ground. "Yamori-san will slaughter you all the moment you step foot outside!"

"Who the hell is Yamori?" Gokudera immediately rounded on the ghoul, who sneered.

"Fucking Doves…always interfering…"

_Bang. Bang._

"Reborn!"

"They're just grunts. Obviously, we're not going to get anything important out of them." The gun in Reborn's hand shimmered, and then a green chameleon slithered up the length of his arm, jumping off at his shoulder to curl around the black fedora. "And before you try to argue with me, Dame-Tsuna, remember that they just tried to kill every single person on this train. Not all ghouls are what we would call… reasonable."

Tsuna gave a frustrated little sigh, running a hand through his hair.

"I know that, Reborn, I just wish… I just wish we could've at least heard their side of things, at least know why they're doing this. If we automatically kill every single ghoul who attacks us, how does that make us any different than indiscriminate murderers?"

Reborn pinched the bridge of his nose in a long-suffering manner, glancing at Tsuna from the corner of his eyes.

"… What are you going to do about the civilians?"

"The… oh." He blinked. The passengers. Those who were still alive and hadn't been killed by the ghouls' wild rampage through the train. "Um. I was thinking that we could find the CCG to get them out…?"

"Find the CCG," Reborn repeated flatly. "Brilliant plan, Tsuna. We're going to waltz up to the very organization that we're trying to _avoid_ coming into contact with? You do recall that our presence here is _unauthorized,_ don't you?"

"… We could get one of the passengers to find the CCG?"

"You're going to convince a traumatized civilian to wander out into ghoul-infested streets? Ota is the 11th ward, it's not exactly what you would call _safe."_

"Well, what else can we do?" Tsuna threw up his hands in the air. "I do hope you're not suggesting that we just leave them out here like this, Reborn."

The hitman rolled his eyes. "One word: Shouichi."

"Shouichi?" Tsuna blinked, completely caught off guard by the unexpected tangent. "Shouichi isn't even here, why would you… oh. _Oh."_

Right. Shouichi could hack into the CCG database. If he could leave a message, with this location, then there would be no need for Tsuna to go out and look for the CCG, and risk getting the attention and scrutiny that he really didn't need on him right now.

"I'll contact Shouichi now, then. Reborn, Gokudera, Yamamoto –would you guys mind rounding everyone up and calm… Actually, never mind. Uh. Reborn and Gokudera, please call Shouichi and update him on our situation, and ask him to make sure the CCG receives intel of civilians stranded here. Yamamoto and I will try to calm down the passengers while you two are doing that."

Reborn smirked at the hasty change in orders.

"You're learning, Dame-Tsuna."

 

.

 

_"Kyou-san?"_

_Hidden behind the edge of a dilapidated building, Hibari pulled on the hood over his head and picked up the generic skull-like mask sitting next to him._

_(The bloodstains had been unexpectedly easy to wash off.)_

_"Go to the 20th ward, Tetsu." 20th ward, Nerima. It was one of the safest wards in Tokyo, and not located too closely to the CCG headquarters. Unofficially acknowledged as Yoshimura's territory; only a fool would try to cross the man who had once been known as Kuzen._

_Kusakabe looked ready to protest his orders. "But–"_

_"But nothing," he said shortly. "You will go to the 20th ward, and you will wait there for my arrival."_

_How long had it been since he had last worn a mask like this over his face? There had been no need for such things in Namimori._

_"Kyou-san, I strongly protest this course of action." Kusakabe frowned. Hibari ignored him. "Aogiri Tree, it's ruled by the 'One-Eyed King,' isn't it? Going in there by yourself like this is just…"_

_No. No, he would do this. Risking any of his other 'contacts' was… inadvisable. No, he wouldn't ask something like this of them. Besides, there was something he had to ascertain for himself, something that he had to see firsthand in person._

_"… You're not listening to me at all, are you?" Kusakabe sighed and bowed his head. "Kyou-san… please be careful. If the One-Eyed King is really who we think it is, then–"_

_"How many One-Eyed Kings do we know?" Hibari arched an eyebrow behind the skull mask that belonged to a different ghoul, turned on his heel, and strode away._

_He had an infiltration to carry out._

…


	4. Chapter 4

_"Is there something wrong?"_

_Special Class Shinohara blinked at the sudden inquiry from one of his subordinates, before smiling and giving a small little shrug of the shoulders._

_"No, not exactly," he responded good-naturedly. "It shouldn't be anything to worry about at the moment."_

_Koutarou Amon hesitated briefly._

_Shinohara's smile widened ever so slightly._

_"Is there something you'd like to ask?"_

_The Second Class ghoul investigator glanced out at the crowd of trembling civilians emerging from the train. There were several other investigators on the scene, helping the terrified survivors out of the steel contraption and guiding them along to a safer area than the location they were currently in. Something in Shinohara's chest gave a slight twinge of sympathy for the almost-victims stumbling forward. Unlike Ghoul investigators who knew full well what they were getting themselves into, they were only normal citizens who hadn't signed up for witnessing any sort of bloodshed at all._

_And yet, they had very nearly ended up as the next meal in the pit of a ghoul's stomach._

_There were several who seemed to be severely shaken by the experience; one young woman had to be all but bodily carried out by two investigators. Others seemed to be taking things in stride, already beginning to recover from the shock –that young brunet flanked by two companions seemed to be slightly pale, but nonetheless looking forward. But it was the raven-haired teen with a black fedora sitting atop his head, trailing behind the trio, who caught his attention. It was a little hard to pinpoint what it was exactly about him that stood out, but there just seemed to be something about him that–_

_"Where did we get the information that there were going to be survivors of a ghoul assault here?" the question of the younger man sounded beside him, and Shinohara turned his attention away from speculating on civilians, feeling something akin to pride and satisfaction settle in his chest at the astute observation._

_Mado's partner was a sharp one, indeed._

_"From an anonymous source," he replied easily. "It happens often enough. The only noteworthy thing about it this time here is the timing of that tip we got –it's not often that we receive information like this just in time to organize a rescue squad."_

_When they had arrived at the train platform earlier, there had been several Aogiri ghouls lurking around in the corners –strangely enough, it didn't seem like they were an actual ambush group; none of them had been prepared to fight when ghoul investigators had poured onto the scene. So it wouldn't be too far of a stretch, then, to assume that they had merely been waiting for the arrival of the train._

_For the arrival of the human-filled train of harmless civilians._

_(For food.)_

_… And wasn't it maddening, that the ghouls dared to pull off a stunt like this right under the CCG's eyes? Wasn't it frustrating, that they would've succeeded, had it not been for that anonymous tip they had received barely in the nick of time to stop the slaughter from happening?_

_"Something seems awfully suspicious about that 'anonymous source.'"_

_A small frown tugged at the Second Class' lips, and Shinohara laughed._

_"You're not the only one thinking that here," he admitted. "Except, our anonymous source is currently giving the entire tech division a headache and a half trying to track them down. Whoever they are, it's apparent that they are very well-versed in traversing the technology realm. We aren't going to be finding them in a single day or two at this rate, not if they don't want to be found."_

_For a short moment, a small pause._

_"… What do you think the chances are of this person being one of the people coming out from the train right now?"_

_It wasn't as if the thought hadn't occurred to him before Amon's comment; the possibility definitely existed. But… how would the civilians know that there had been a group of ghouls laying in ambush for them at the end of this train stop? And if this person, this 'anonymous source,' had known of the ghouls' involvement beforehand… what reason would there be for them to even board the train in the first place? Even considering if this person's goal was to come to Tokyo, couldn't they have gone on another train instead to avoid this mess entirely?_

_Something wasn't making sense here._

_(A missing piece of the puzzle, so to speak.)_

_"It's possible," Shinohara nodded along to Amon's query. "But if our anonymous source is smart enough to avoid discovery from the tech division, they probably won't have any trouble putting up an act as a genuinely terrified, traumatized civilian. And we don't have the time to sit down and sift through each and every person here right now; it's not the reason why we're in Ota."_

_At the reminder of their true purpose here, something in Amon hardened in determination and resolve, and Shinohara found himself giving another small smile again. Mado's partner really was a fine young man._

_Now, if only Juuzou could pick up some of that sense of responsibility… preferably sometime before the next century…_

 

.

 

Shouichi's update of the current situation in the 11th ward, Ota –the new information that he had uncovered from the latest rummage through the CCG database– was certainly useful; there was no denying that.

Useful, if not particularly heartening to learn of.

"There's an Aogiri base here… and the CCG is mounting an attack on it soon."

Tsuna bit his lip, lightly tapping his fingers against the table of the small hotel room they were temporarily staying in, courtesy of accommodations that the CCG had seen fit to 'support' the 'civilian survivors of a ghoul assault' with.

He supposed that they were lucky enough to have gotten around to 'talking' to the civilians on the train almost immediately in the aftermath of their earlier fight with the ghouls. Particularly the people who had glimpsed them in combat –Tsuna supposed that they were lucky that there hadn't been too many difficulties in finding them and 'calming' them down, convincing them that the ghouls hijacking the train had ended up turning on each other in a fight for more prey amongst themselves instead of…

Well, instead of what had _really_ occurred.

(Terror could accomplish many things in distorting the memories in one's mind if they weren't trained for the pressure of battle; with the subtle and liberal use of Rain flames, it was easy enough to downplay their involvement –though, admittedly, Mist flames would've been better suited for this purpose. It was a good thing that there hadn't been very many witnesses to their altercation with the ghouls anyways; most had been fully preoccupied with the pressing task of putting as much distance between themselves and the bloodthirsty ghouls as humanly possible during the altercation.

Too busy trying to escape instead of paying attention to what had truly stopped the ghouls from pursuing after them.)

Of course, it wasn't likely that this cover would hold indefinitely, not if someone decided to take a closer look and poke around closely at the occurrences. But for now it would be enough; it would suffice under quick scrutiny –and, honestly speaking, that was all they needed at the moment.

Even though Tsuna had a gut feeling for being here in the 11th ward right now, that didn't mean he was planning to stick around for too long. Their main goal to be here in Tokyo in the first place was finding the Sasagawas, after all. Really, looking at it in broader terms, it would probably be best to start their search in the 20th ward first, where they were _supposed to be,_ instead of starting the search here in Ota, where there were practically no leads to work off of.

The news that Shouichi had recently turned up about the 11th ward was… worrying. In retrospect, the CCG's decision to stage an operation to 'wipe out' the 'ghoul nest' here wasn't anything to be surprised about; what with the mass evacuation of the city going on and all, something like this… honestly didn't come as much of a shock as it might've been, had they came here a month ago and encountered the same situation.

Aogiri.

It was a term that was still unfamiliar to his lips at this point, yet Tsuna had the sinking feeling that he was going to become well acquainted with this name very, very soon. Which, considering that this _Aogiri Tree_ was an organization of ghouls that actively fought ghoul investigators from the CCG in addition to hunting down civilians… didn't exactly bode well.

_I wonder how Hibari-san is doing right now?_

Hibari had arrived in Tokyo earlier than them, hadn't he?

Tsuna spared a quick moment to wonder about the current doings of his wayward Cloud Guardian –before promptly admitting to himself that he was probably better off not knowing.

(And for all the battle-lust that ran through Hibari Kyouya's veins, the stubborn Cloud still knew caution when the time called for it; rare were the times that he actually found himself in over his head in any situation. He had taken Kusakabe with him here as well, right? Kusakabe Tetsuya's presence would definitely go a long way in helping to temper out the edge of recklessness to his actions that still flared up every now and then. Even if Hibari was willing to take risks with his own safety, the same couldn't be said when it came to the subordinates under his command. Not when the dangers concerned those he felt obliged to protect.)

"Juudaime?"

Tsuna glanced up, startled out of his thoughts by Gokudera's voice sounding from the now-open doorway.

"Just got another update; looks like the CCG is going to be moving out." the Storm raised his arm and pointed outwards, waving it in the vague direction of where the 'ghoul nest' was located. "There's going to be a few investigators getting us and the other passengers out of this area soon, before the rest of them start heading out there in an hour or so."

"I see," Tsuna nodded in light of the new information, gaze dropping to the edge of the tabletop before shaking his head, quirking a wry smile at the edge of his lips. "Guess that doesn't leave us with much time, does it?"

"What do you plan to do?"

Even though Reborn's physical appearance was only that of a young teen at the moment, there was still something about his very presence that put Tsuna at ease as the Italian strode into the room, his smooth gait calm and completely unperturbed as he simply cocked an eyebrow at him.

"I… I think, there's probably something about this CCG operation that we should probably check out. It's probably what my intuition has been acting up about," Tsuna responded, leaning back and sighing. "Might as well do that since we're here and stuck in the middle of all this, anyways. I don't want to get involved in the fighting between the investigators and these Aogiri ghouls, though, so try to keep any altercations we run into to a minimum. Even if we don't manage to find anything important here, we can still use this as an opportunity to further observe how ghouls and ghoul investigators fight. For future reference."

Reborn smirked at the last bit.

"'For future reference,' indeed," the hitman drawled. "We'll be treating this as something of a reconnaissance run then, won't we? The ghouls and ghoul investigators will most likely be too preoccupied with fighting each other to take note of us as long as we don't do anything that will stand out too much. Just don't run off to do anything stupid, and things should be fine."

"… What are you trying to imply with that, Reborn?" Tsuna deadpanned, abandoning all forms of subtlety in that statement, and the former Sun Arcobaleno rolled his eyes.

"Why, I have no idea what you're talking about." Reborn's voice was _dry,_ to the point that he could probably give a desert a run for its money.

Tsuna shook his head.

It wasn't as if he went out deliberately looking for trouble –trouble usually found its way to him, even when he took a detour.

"We can make our way to the ghouls' base when the investigators are taking us and the other train passengers out of here," he decided. "It shouldn't be too hard to find an opportunity to slip away, considering the large group we'll be moving in. That, and I don't want to leave a trail here –it'll only raise suspicions if they come here and find that we're gone. Better to wait this out here for now."

"The investigators ll be here in a few moments; I heard them checking in on some of the others downstairs already." Yamamoto's head popped in through the doorway, grinning cheerfully. "Let's get ready for this, ne?"

…

(Truthfully speaking, Tsuna wasn't comfortable with the impending battle between the CCG and the ghouls in this area. He could understand it, of course, but it was probably his relationship with Hibari that prevented him from viewing ghouls as flesh-eating monsters without a care for anything else like most did. Not to say that he wasn't grateful for it; in a world that broadcasted ghouls as vicious creatures that needed to be put down, how many would ever be able to learn to look past their fear?

Tsuna understood that ghouls were dangerous. He was fully aware that many were violent and had absolutely no qualms about killing humans for sport. But he was also aware that there was something more to ghouls than just the label of 'ruthless killer' that society had seen fit to grace them with, that not all ghouls were senseless murderers. That there was still part of them that was undeniably _human._

He understood.

… But that didn't mean he wouldn't fight when the time called for it; Tsuna would not hesitate when it was the safety and wellbeing of his friends, his _family,_ sitting on the line. He knew how the vast majority considered ghouls to be monsters, and while he sympathized –that didn't mean he would be willing overlook them if they posed a threat to his family.)

…

"Ah," Tsuna said simply, smiling lightly as Yamamoto walked into the room, feeling the warm presence of Reborn standing at his side and Gokudera beside him. "… Yeah. Let's get ready."

 

.

 

_…_

_"Where's Yamori-san?"_

_"Yamori-san? Well… if he's not out and about, he's probably in that 'playground' of his again."_

_Two skull-masked ghouls sat idly by the pillar in a darkened corridor, picking at random strings of conversation to pass the time as they waited._

_"Huh. Wonder which unlucky soul caught his attention this time."_

_The shorter ghoul shrugged._

_"… Dunno if this is true, but I've heard someone say that it's the weird ghoul that was brought back from Anteiku."_

_"Huh, really?" The other ghoul let out a short whistle at this piece of news. "Poor bastard. How long do you think he'll last?"_

_"Ehh," the young ghoul shrugged. "Probably won't be too long from now, I'm guessing. According to past experiences, Yamori-san will be growing bored with him soon. Besides, don't we have the doves outside to be worrying about? It's not as if he will keep on playing with his new toy when the doves come knocking on our door, can he?"_

_"Damn straight he won't be."_

_…_

_The banter derailed from that point onwards; switching from their subsequent musings on doves to betting on the number of humans they would kill in the upcoming battle. Hibari straightened from where he had been leaning against the wall just around the corner and ghosted away, footsteps silent and leaving no trace as to his prior presence there._

_This wasn't his first time hearing of Yamori, one of the authority figures commanding a branch of ghouls here in Aogiri Tree. Nor was it his first time hearing of the ghoul's sickening hobbies, his obsession with torture. It wasn't his first time hearing of Yamori currently being fixated on his newest 'toy,' focusing his attentions on the latest in a long line of victims._

_It was the first time that the name 'Anteiku' was mentioned in conversation, however._

_…_

_Hibari exhaled lowly, looking up into the ceiling of broken lights, awash in darkened shadows._

_Anteiku._

_(To think that he would hear that name here…)_

_A brief heartbeat, a slight pause. The Cloud then changed the direction of his footsteps, reaching up a pale hand to adjust the skull mask covering his face, and headed towards the far depths of the base._

_Deeper and deeper, spiraling down into the gaping maws of the cavernous depths below._


End file.
